Pope Pius XI Survives All Of WW2 As Pope.

This pope who IOTL died in 1939, before WW2, believed very strongly that Jews and Christians were of the same religious family even stating that spiritually we are all Semites. He consider Nazism and Fascism as the greatest threat to Christianity in that time period. If he had survived to criticise Hitler and Mussolini, would anything have changed during WW2?
 
A definite no-no for benito

Well, PR-wise he'd be a thorn in the side of mostly Mussolini, but also hitler. The spiritual leader of the catholic church urging his followers to stand by the jewish communities and shelter them from the nazists and to some degree the fascists?

That could potentially give enormous butterflies.
A larger, stronger and more popular resistance to the two dicators in their countries and occupied territories?

Hell, maybe Mussolini himself realizes that joining the deranged nazi-side won't be as awesome as he had thought, and strikes a deal with the pope to stay neutral, accept jewish refuges in return for the pope not condemning facism as particulary evil?

I don't know, this is "guesstimating" you might say, sadly not my area of expertise.
 

abc123

Banned
Well, there are some rumors that Mussolini poisoned him, after all father of Clara Petacci was personal phisician of Pope.
 
I don't think Mussolni would remain neutral after the allies started winning. He would attack Germany. After the war there would be a three way cold war.
 
Could Pope Pius XII have become pope, if Pius XI had outlived the war?

Cardinal Pacelli was his Secretary of State (with an immense amount of diplomatic experience going back to the end of the First World War) so unless you believe there would be a massive rift emerging between the two during the war he would be the overwhelming favorite at the conclave.

The difference between Pius XI and Pius XII re the Jews is somewhat exagerrated IMHO. While Pius XI was opposed to antiSemitism he was also very AntiJudaic which meant he was very critical of modern Jews for not embracing Jesus. He also believed Catholics should have as little interaction as possible with religious Jews.
 
Cardinal Pacelli was his Secretary of State (with an immense amount of diplomatic experience going back to the end of the First World War) so unless you believe there would be a massive rift emerging between the two during the war he would be the overwhelming favorite at the conclave.

.

Being Secretary of State is normally a handicap for getting elected pope. I don´t no other example outside Pacelli, were a Secretary of State became Pope. I assume this break of tradition is only understandable in the emerging crisis of 1939. The Cardinals wanted the best man in office during this hard times. After WWII Pacelli would propably "went as pope in the conclave and came out as cardinal"
 
Astrodragon, your post makes no sense!
Er, yes it does. At present the thread title as written with 'As Pope' at the end makes it seem as though the question is more about his managing to stay Pope until the end of the war rather than staying alive to the end of the war. Astrodrago was trying to make the joke about how if he didn't manage to survive as Pope until the end of the war then what happened, did he step down or was he voted out, and what sort of position did he take up for the rest of the war - doctor, plumber, taxi driver etc. ;)
 

Esopo

Banned
This pope who IOTL died in 1939, before WW2, believed very strongly that Jews and Christians were of the same religious family even stating that spiritually we are all Semites. He consider Nazism and Fascism as the greatest threat to Christianity in that time period. If he had survived to criticise Hitler and Mussolini, would anything have changed during WW2?

No pope ever considere fascism/nazism the greatest threat to christianity. Communism was always and by far the number one.
 
Top